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- 22-25 Jan - The Catalyst 2021 NZ Laser Nationals - Worser Bay BC
- 20 & 21 Feb - Tauranga Regatta - TYPBC
Andrew McKenzie
Susannah Pyatt
George Gautrey & Rohan Lord
The Sheffield South Island Laser Championships were held at NPCL on the 25/26 November.
Entries were from as far afield as Dunedin, Picton and Nelson. There were 22 Radials and 7 Full Rigs competing. Race 1 on Saturday started in a light SW and had to be abandoned as the wind died away and the good old NE arrived. This meant a beat up the harbour to a different race course area. Racing got away again about 12-30 in a building Easterly and 3 races were completed in 14-21 knots.
Alistair Gifford, fresh from his 2nd place in the youth trials, dominated the Full Rigs with local hopefuls Tim Pitcaithly 2nd and Master Chris Shannon 3rd in each race.
In the Radials, previous winner Peter Graham from Dunedin had a 1,2,1 and female Master Jenny Armstrong (previous Olympic Gold 470 medallist) also from Dunedin was in a tied position with local Hamish Atkinson with 2,3,4 scorecards. Charles Corston won race 2 convincingly and then in race 3 dislocated his shoulder again so, unfortunately, had to painfully retire from the series.
On Sunday, we sailed a little further up the harbour with another 3 races in champagne 14-20 knot Lyttelton Easterly conditions.
For the Full Rigs, it was much of the same with Alistair getting 3 deserving bullets, followed by Tim with 3 seconds and Sean Thomson 3 thirds.
In the Radials, Peter also had 3 bullets, and Jenny and Hamish continued their 2,3,4 placings. Simon Wilson had blistering pace for a 2nd in Race 4 and 3rd in Race 5. Simon finished 4th overall and had some good capsize practice and may consider bringing his snorkel and mask up for the Nationals!
Full Rig prizes went to Alistair for 1st Youth, Tim for 1st Open and Sean for 1st Master. Radial prizes went to Peter for 1st Open, Jenny for 1st Female and 1st Master and Harry Corston for 1st Youth, and unofficially Greg Corston for the most UFD’s.
Thanks very much to Ross May the Race Officer, Phil Foulter race management, and the race boat helpers. Looking forward to some more of the same hopefully in January at the Sheffield Nationals.
See you all there!
- Hamish Atkinson


The Radial fleet saw a really close contest which was only decided in the last race. Youth Joshua Bull convincingly took out race 7 to secure the title by a single point from Master Richard Blakey, who was 2 points ahead of Apprentice Phil Wild with first GM Kevin Welsh in 4th. Kevin was unlucky not to take out the Masters title after getting a UFD when he had won race 3 on the water. Last weeks Radial winner at the Auckland Masters Werner Hennig was a close 5th followed by first women, Michelle Bain in 6th. Sueellen Davis kept Michelle honest in 7th overall, a great performance as she has only just got back into the Laser ahead of the WMG.
The Standard fleet was dominated by three sailors. Top youth sailor Josh Armit gave all the masters sailors a true lesson in lake sailing, with 5 wins and 2 seconds, and showing an amazing ability to read the conditions and either dominate from the start or work his way to the front of the fleet on the rare occasion he got buried and gave the rest of us a chance. Almost as impressive were Masters Rohan Lord and Giles Grigg. Rohan won the two races Josh when "stumbled" and was consistently in the top 5 in all the other races, as was Giles. While Josh and Rowan were able to break away from the rest of the front bunch to win their races there was incredibly close racing in the rest of the fleet, with the top half of the fleet regularly bow to stern at every mark throughout the races. This made consistency incredibly difficult to achieve and all the rest of the fleet ended up carrying a couple of higher scoring races. Third Master and 4th overall was local lake sailor Tony Nicholson, who had a great run of pin end starts and just pipped top GM Mark Oliver in 5th overall. Past multiple NZ Masters National Champion, Apprentice Kris Decke struggled for consistency and ended up first Apprentice but 7th overall.
Pupuke provided the usual generous selection of prizes to finish a very enjoyable weekend. The last formal warmup regatta before the WMG is at Takapuna Friday/Saturday next weekend then it is on to the big Masters' event of the NZ season, the World Masters Games at Torbay, with 10 races over 5 days certain to provide top quality racing for the 170 Laser Masters entered.
- Nick Page
Standard
| pos | class.div.sail | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | dis | net | name | club | |
| 1 | Laser O 7250 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 7 | ARMIT Josh | MBSC | |
| 2 | Laser M 10 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 17 | LORD Rohan | PBC | |
| 3 | Laser M 8808 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 21 | GRIGG Giles | TYC | |
| 4 | Laser M 5549 | 2 | 7 | 8 | 11 | 6 | 9 | 4 | 11 | 36 | NICHOLSON Tony | PBC | |
| 5 | Laser G 7127 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 10 | 10 | 38 | OLIVER Mark | HSC | |
| 6 | Laser M 4323 | 6 | 2 | 13 | 13 | 10 | 4 | 7 | 13 | 42 | BRODIE Cris | BYC | |
| 7 | Laser A 9238 | 8 | 3 | 15 | 12 | 5 | 3 | 15 | 15 | 46 | DECKE Kris | OYC | |
| 8 | Laser M 0151 | 5 | 9 | 6 | 14 | 3 | ufd | 11 | 30 | 48 | DRUMMOND Dean | PBC | |
| 9 | Laser G 8520 | 9 | 6 | 12 | 7 | 11 | 11 | 8 | 12 | 52 | SHOWELL John | PBC | |
| 10 | Laser G 8107 | 14 | 10 | 5 | 2 | 20 | ufd | 2 | 30 | 53 | KEETON Mike | PBC | |
| 11 | Laser G 1519 | 10 | 14 | 7 | 10 | 9 | 6 | 14 | 14 | 56 | PAGE Nick | PBC | |
| 12 | Laser G 6909 | 16 | 12 | 10 | 6 | 13 | 15 | 9 | 16 | 65 | LOCK Garry | PBC | |
| 13 | Laser G 0009 | 13 | 13 | 14 | 5 | 17 | 12 | 16 | 17 | 73 | BORRMANN Thomas | PBC | |
| 14 | Laser M 8881 | 12 | 17 | 18 | 15 | 14 | 13 | 18 | 18 | 89 | ANDERSON Rob | KYC | |
| 15 | Laser A 2705 | 19 | 18 | 9 | dns | 16 | 23 | 6 | 32 | 91 | ATCHISON Ken | HYC | |
| 16 | Laser M 2872 | 17 | 11 | ufd | 18 | 15 | 18 | 13 | 24 | 92 | NICHOLSON Karl | WBC | |
| 17 | Laser G 2259 | 18 | 19 | 11 | 9 | 18 | 19 | 21 | 21 | 94 | DOWSETT John | PBC | |
| 18 | Laser S 1512 | 15 | 16 | ufd | 19 | 12 | 14 | 19 | 24 | 95 | PITMAN John | NPYC | |
| 19 | Laser M 6528 | 11 | 15 | 17 | 17 | 19 | 17 | dns | 32 | 96 | BATENBURG Luuk | PBC | |
| 20 | Laser M 0537 | 21 | 20 | 19 | 20 | 23 | 24 | 22 | 24 | 125 | CAMILLERI John | PBC | |
| 21 | Laser G 0213 | 20 | 21 | 20 | 22 | 26 | 22 | 23 | 26 | 128 | WADDELL Rob | PBC | |
| 22 | Laser G 4689 | 22 | 22 | 21 | 21 | 24 | 25 | 24 | 25 | 134 | SANDERS Dave | PBC | |
| 23 | Laser G 3125 | dns | dns | dns | dns | 8 | 16 | 17 | 32 | 137 | LOWE David | PBC | |
| 24 | Laser G 3947 | dns | dns | dns | dns | 25 | 10 | 12 | 32 | 143 | HURSTHOUSE Mark | PBC | |
| 25 | Laser M 6871 | dns | dns | dns | dns | 22 | 8 | 20 | 32 | 146 | CANECELLO Marco | PLSC | |
| 26 | Laser G 0545 | dns | dns | 16 | 16 | dns | dns | dns | 32 | 160 | ABICHT Grant | TYC | |
| 27 | Laser G 2226 | 1 | dns | dns | dns | dns | dns | dns | 32 | 161 | IRWIN Murray | PBC | |
| 28 | Laser M 6876 | dns | dns | dns | dns | 28 | 20 | 25 | 32 | 169 | BERRY John | PBC | |
| 29 | Laser G 1878 | dns | dns | dns | dns | 21 | 21 | dns | 32 | 170 | FERGUSON Wayne | PBC | |
| 30 | Laser S 2123 | dns | dns | dns | dns | 27 | 27 | 26 | 32 | 176 | WESTMORELAND Mickey | PBC | |
| 31 | Laser M 7862 | dns | dns | dns | dns | 29 | 26 | 27 | 32 | 178 | BERRY David |
Radial
| pos | class.div.sail | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | dis | net | name | club | |
| 1 | Radial O 6381 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 6 | 15 | BULL Joshua | MBSC | |
| 2 | Radial M 5886 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 16 | BLAKEY Richard | TYC | |
| 3 | Radial A 5538 | 8 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 18 | WILD Phil | MSC | |
| 4 | Radial G 6029 | 2 | 5 | ufd | 2 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 17 | 20 | WELSH Kevin | PLSC | |
| 5 | Radial M 7892 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 7 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 22 | HENNIG Werner | HYC | |
| 6 | Radial wM 6406 | 5 | 9 | ufd | 3 | 6 | 4 | 12 | 17 | 39 | BAIN Michelle | TSC | |
| 7 | Radial wA 1 | 9 | 7 | 7 | dns | 7 | 10 | 5 | 17 | 45 | DAVIES Suellen | RAYC | |
| 8 | Radial M 7775 | 12 | 15 | 8 | 5 | 9 | 8 | 9 | 15 | 51 | COFFIN Jeff | PLSC | |
| 9 | Radial S 2968 | 10 | 14 | 3 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 11 | 14 | 54 | KNOTT Barrie | PBC | |
| 10 | Radial M 9384 | 11 | 10 | 10 | ufd | 8 | 7 | 8 | 16 | 54 | YANKOV Georgi | PBC | |
| 11 | Radial M 4468 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 8 | dns | dns | dns | 17 | 55 | WOOLDRIDGE Neil | WBC | |
| 12 | Radial A 8891 | 13 | 11 | 11 | 12 | 12 | 9 | 10 | 13 | 65 | MINKOV Vlad | PBC | |
| 13 | Radial O 2441 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | dns | dns | dns | 17 | 68 | DRUMMOND Finn | MBSC | |
| 14 | Radial S 5806 | 15 | 12 | 12 | ufd | 11 | 12 | 7 | 16 | 69 | SHEARMAN Geoff | TSC | |
| 15 | Radial wO 9211 | 14 | 13 | ufd | 11 | 14 | 14 | 13 | 17 | 79 | BOYD Isabella | BOI | |
| 16 | Radial wM 7146 | 16 | 16 | 13 | 13 | 13 | 13 | 14 | 16 | 82 | McKEE Shaaron | PLSC |
RO Garth Briden (who else) did an excellent job getting us 7 races in light and veering N to NE winds and big tides.
The first race on Saturday was light NE but fair. The first attempt at a second race was abandoned when a small group jumped out ahead while the majority parked up at the wing mark - a robust discussion on events ensued.
Some sailors waited ashore for the breeze to settle in. And when it did a pretty even second race was completed. The 3rd race was completed in a dying breeze that caught a few out.
4 races were completed on Sunday. Races 4 & 5 started in a Northerly breeze and a triangle, which shifted right half way through race 5. It hung in long enough to finish races 6 and 7 on a windward leeward course.
Garth tried to control the general recalls with the U flag as the tide flowing over the reef and under our bows pushed us over the line.
Despite the light breezes, the waves (some would say slop) could be worked - but carefully.
Even the successful sailors had a few trying moments. On the water Josh Armit was the most successful in the standard fleet. But he doesn't count as he's only 15 and we get sick of him winning everything.
Dan Slater eventually came out on top master in the Standard fleet.
And Werner Henning won the radial fleet on countback, being tied at the top with Richard Blakey.
Great to see Jim Quinn winning the Legends Radial division with a brand new knee.
For others Sunday's roast beef sandwiches were the most successful part of the regatta.
Many thanks to the volunteers at Tamaki and to the generous prize sponsors